Footballers add novelty, variety and challenge to sharpen cognitive and perceptual skills
Can brain training make better footballers? (The Guardian):
“It sounds like a game designed for toddlers – throwing and catching a ball to encourage talking – but, according to coaches at Southampton FC, brain-training technique Life Kinetik is the latest weapon in the war to stop modern life ruining the beautiful game…
Horst Lutz, the German founder of Life Kinetik, says the technique is about more than forcing friendliness. It aims to make the brain sharper through exercises that test physical, cognitive and perceptual skills. In one exercise, participants must throw their partner a ball and, at the same time, shout out which hand they want it to be caught in. Meanwhile, their partner must step forward with their opposite leg to catch it.
“The idea is to make the most of our brains, making new connections between our neurons by doing things we haven’t done before,” Lutz explains. “For footballers, the main focus is reaction speed and [making] fewer errors.”
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